We happy for the clarification from the United States that the recently announced suspension of firearms shipment to Jamaica was not punishment for this country's stance on the Haitian crisis.

Rather, we are advised, it is the result of a broad review of the gun export policy, which Jamaica has requested, in its ongoing effort to deal with the problem of illegal guns, too many of which are in the hands of criminals.

In that regard, orders by the Jamaican police and military, if there are any, will not be held up. And hopefully, new ones will not be subject to delays.

The parameters of this review have not been made public. This newspaper hopes that the project does not only end at the State Department, but involves all the agencies which are affected in some way by the movement of guns in, and outside of the United States, including US Customs.

Indeed, this is a matter of vital importance to Jamaica, for it has profound implications for the country's national security.
There is little doubt that violent crime is Jamaica's most immediate, and biggest problem. And the gun figures large in this problem.

Each year, nearly 1,000 persons are murdered in Jamaica and our murder rate of nearly 40 per 100,000 population is among the world's highest. About three quarters of those murders are with guns, which are used in a range of other crimes, particularly robberies.

Most of the guns used in either murders and other crimes, it is believed, come to the island illegally, hidden in legitimate cargo or smuggled in as part of the narcotics trade.

There is little doubt that some of the guns and ammunition which are imported legally, through illicit actions on the part of a few people in various areas, seep into the criminal underworld or otherwise fall into the hands of persons who might not otherwise qualify to carry firearms.

The presence of guns on the streets, in the possession of regular criminals, gang members or "soldiers" in drug groups, pose a grave danger to the stability of Jamaica. They help to undermine a sense of personal security and impact negatively on the prospects for investment and growth.

It is important, therefore, that a system is in place to track a firearm from the time of its manufacture, through its purchase and shipment, right to its retailing, registration and use in Jamaica. If that requires new, and better, procedures in the United States for the review and monitoring of export licences, then so be it.

The American process, however, should not end only at the issuing of licences for the export of guns in the formal trading system. We would appreciate substantially more aggression on the part of the American authorities in seeking to detect weapons leaving their country as contraband.

The situation has improved in the two-and-a-half years since 9/11, but there is room, it seems to us, for far more rigour on the part of US Customs and other agencies in searching for illegal guns leaving the US, even if the effort does not reach the level of their attempt to prevent contraband entering America.

But the responsibility does not rest only with the United States. There is plenty to be done in Jamaica, not least of which is to deal with the corrupt practice in the constabulary of granting gun permits to persons who do not meet the criteria. In some cases, criminals and other questionable characters, it has been reported, are granted gun licences for a fee.

We know that this matter has been under investigation for two years, but despite all the problems alluded to by the police chief, it demands a new urgency and public action taken against those who have been involved.

It can't be beyond the constabulary and the Government to create computer-based, centralised registration for the evaluation and issuance of firearm permits, making it easy for officials to track "legal" guns and to put pertinent questions to firearm holders.

Executive Class

Necessary Luxury

Halle Berry and her picture-perfect family co-ordinate in grey